


he makes me happy

by DanceWithMeForScience



Series: stories of train tracks that I will never walk along [2]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Universe - Punk, M/M, crust punk AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-01-31 20:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18599131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanceWithMeForScience/pseuds/DanceWithMeForScience
Summary: Hugh drives to see Paul. Set in my crust punk AU, between Chapters 7 and 8 of Wishing We Had a Home, the previous work in this series, from Hugh's POV.





	he makes me happy

**Author's Note:**

> Originally a 2018 fic gift for @Aphelyon.

Traffic on the Bay Bridge is mercifully light that evening. Hugh taps his right hand against his leg as he drives, trying to stay focused.  
  
Less than 2 hours to Stockton, if he’s lucky, and then there’s Paul.  
  
He tries not to think about why he’s driving all the way out to Stockton the day after he just came back from there yesterday, resists the urge to look at his phone screen again. The alarm’s on. He can pull over if he gets a text or a call.  
  
He’s almost glad that C.J. didn’t answer the phone earlier. Hugh feels a bit more excited about spending time with Paul, and there will probably be less morose drinking than he’d be doing with C.J. And yet he’s nervous about what that means, that he’d rather drive four hours roundtrip, using gas money he doesn’t quite have in the budget, to spend another night with his… his…  
  
Hugh exhales, drumming his fingers now on the steering wheel.  
  
His mom would have a fit if this gets serious. _“What does he do?”_ she’ll ask.  
  
_“He works at a burger place.”_ At least now there’s an answer other than he’s unemployed, which would make her absolutely lose her mind. Although she’s still gonna roll her eyes and ask a bunch more questions he doesn’t have the answers to.  
  
_“And he doesn’t take advantage of you?”_  
  
She’s not going to understand the help he’s given Paul and Tilly, so he probably can’t even mention that to her. But no, of course he doesn’t. _“He gives me a lot, Mama.”_  
  
Smiles. Laughs. A new perspective. An attitude that normally Hugh would think a bit overstated, but coming from Paul is mostly just amusing, or understandable, given his life. And an intensity about everything that…  
  
_“He makes me happy."_  
  
He exhales again, smiles at the memory of Paul frowning at him over his coffee cup on the bus on the way to class. And that mischievous expression he gets when he’s snarking at Hugh. Or when he was looking down at him just a few days ago when they were in bed together…

He’d like to spend time with Paul without that time being on the cusp of a crisis, whether it’s Paul trying to run away from his problems or getting evicted or whether it’s himself worrying about his grandpa, his grandpa who taught him to count to ten and how to use a slingshot and how to clean and bandage a cut and…  
  
Before he can get lost in worrying about his abuelo, Hugh turns on the radio, but his favorite college radio is playing some very tense sad music. He switches over to top 40 because at least he can occupy himself singing along to songs.  
  
He wants to ask Paul to go away with him for the weekend because that’s the ticket to, he hopes, time alone with Paul, time to try to understand what’s going on with them.  
  
Truth be told, he’s had a crush on Paul from the very moment he laid eyes on him. And he’s spent the past 3 months arguing with himself about whether that’s really a good idea. He’d promised himself to buckle down and get serious in med school. He knows if he’s going to make it through he needs his focus and dedication to be at the forefront.  
  
So naturally within the first few weeks of school he developed the biggest crush he’s had since he was fourteen, on someone who raises red flags for his “overdeveloped helping complex,” as his sister called it as she was chewing him out for inviting someone into the house who robbed them.  
  
At least in the last couple of weeks it’s been motivating. He has to be on point at school so he can spend time with Paul. And he’d like to think he’s helping motivate Paul too, if that’s not too conceited.  
  
And he also can’t wait for the opportunity to just shut his brain off and lose himself in Paul and not worry about grades or memorization or his family or…  
  
_Oh crap._ He has to change lanes at the last moment to avoid an exit.  
  
Steady on the road again, he turns up the music and starts to sing.  
  
_Take me on a trip I'd like to go some day_  
_Take me to New York, I'd love to see LA_  
_I really want to come kick it with you_  
_You'll be my American boy_


End file.
